In October 2020, Mattel had announced that Thomas will get a 'new look, new story structure' after 36 years . Prior to that, the newest change was 'Big World, Big Adventures' in 2018. An attempt at making Thomas interesting towards a 21st century audience, while still maintaining the same canon it had since 1984, by being more culturally and gender diverse by taking Thomas to other countries to meet with different engines and learning different cultures as well as adding in more female characters, considering that Thomas had been criticised by parents since the show's inception that their was a lack of female characters. This was all done to make toy sales for Thomas to go up as it had gone on towards a downward slump, between 2017-2020, and this was done to make TV ratings go up too. Despite the amount of publicity and merchandising, the show failed to meet Mattel's expectations and sadly ended 36 years of continuity, however I believe gracefully with 'Thomas & The Royal Engine', despite that broadcasters had ended it with 'Thomas' Animal Friends', which wasn't a bad episode in my opinion.
Now here we are months after the traliler had leaked by someone at Mattel, we are at the start of a new series, or in Mattel's case the '25th season'. Could this be a new start? Could this lead to more toy sales for Mattel? Despite Thomas toy sales starting up again since December 2020. Or will this be another failed attempt for Mattel when it comes to Thomas?
THESE ARE SOLEY MY OPINION AND NOT INFLUENCED FROM THE THOMAS & FRIENDS FANDOM
PLEASE BE ADVISED THAT THERE
MAYBE SOME MILD SWEARING.
THOMAS & FRIENDS:
ALL ENGINES GO!
I just can't be bothered sitting through this generic tripe that has the name Thomas slapped onto it. Say what you want about BWBA but at least it was taken care by people who actually cared about Thomas' history and didn't want to tarnish what Awdry had created. They at least had interesting stories that didn't repeat itself over and over again to the point that you would want to ram your head into a goddam wall! Sure I see it's problems that people point out but I would rather watch Big World on repeat than this garbage. That show still kept the continuity, still respected Awdry's root as much as they can and made at least bearable stories to sit through even though some weren't as good.
After the trailer was leaked I did try to overcome with its existance and would at least give it a chance and after its world debut in Mexico, the first episode 'A Thomas Promise' was a decent opener but it still showcases the generic outcome of it all and the message about keeping your promise is nothing new really. Although it was stupid that Thomas was shocked that he was switched onto the wrong track while racing Diesel when really he has the power to jump onto one track and then the other. It just makes no sense. Yes Whiff was mentioned but I bet it's the name of the recycling plant and has no relation to the character at all.
The second episode however 'Thomas Blastoff' that was a chore to sit through. Remember how we were happy that the three strike formula was gone eight years ago, despite it being used in the early part of S17. Well it came back and good god it was like seeing someone you hate from your high school days that brought back an awful memory. The third episode 'License to Deliver' is another bland repeitive story and the fourth episode 'Rules of the Game' while decent is just something that most kids show do when it comes to no one having fun.
The series before this and BWBA at least have messages that stealing animals is wrong, your friends are still your friends even when you're far apart from each other, not everyone likes to be in the spotlight, forgive and forget and don't try and further the situation. The latter being the message from 'Tit for Tat'. The messages in this show are just your generic kids stuff that kids could learn from their parents or teachers!
Yes it is a kids show but that doesn't mean it's not bad, people have been saying that when BWBA was a thing. Stop telling people that they can't criticise kids shows or movies because they are made for kids that's how dumb crap gets made that deride children's intelligences. I'd only watched four episodes and while two are decent they can't a hold a candle to what was Thomas & Friends from 1984-2020.
Rather than improving on something that they'd hyped and let the people working behind the show trying out their ideas to make it work, Mattel would just take away everything that the show was and just make it Thomas is a human but looks like a train instead of making Thomas looking and acting like a steam locomotive.
I don't have anything against the people who had animated on the show nor the voice actors, there are some talented people who had made this. I pretty lay the blame on the executives at Mattel who thinks something like this is what children likes, crazy action, sayings like 'epic', missaid words to make it sound babyish to make kids look dumb, shitty puns that are just grating. Instead of just seeing a child watching something that isn't forced on them and see what they like about it. Though I really don't believe the concept of a test audience considering that so many people are different.
To end this short review, I will say this. Saying that this show was '75 years in the making' is a fucking insult to the past 75 years made by people who had made Thomas a success well before Mattel got their hands on the brand. I don't see this show making it towards its 80th anniversary and even if it does it would be a massive rub of salt in the wound if Mattel says they 'care' about Thomas' heritage because this show screams that they don't.
If toy sales start to plummet then Mattel has no one else but to blame themselves for that potential outcome.
If this reboot fails I would rather have Mattel sell Thomas to another company, I would rather have it sold to Sony Creative Products in Japan since they have a great 30 year track record of licensing Thomas products in the land of the rising sun.
However if there are people who do enjoy this reboot just let them enjoy it. Harassing someone would not make the show any better and especially on the internet who could be a young kid playing on their parents' phone.
RATING
1/10
